Numbers keep getting uglier for frustrated Brady

FOXBORO — Is Tom Brady the 22nd best quarterback in the NFL?That is where the Patriots quarterback stands five weeks into the season, according to the rating system the league uses to gauge quarterback...

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PAUL KENYON
Posted Oct. 7, 2013 @ 3:54 pm

FOXBORO — Is Tom Brady the 22nd best quarterback in the NFL?

That is where the Patriots quarterback stands five weeks into the season, according to the rating system the league uses to gauge quarterback performance.

For a decade now, Brady has been among the leaders in quarterback rating. He finished at 98.7, sixth best in the league, last season. In 2011, he was at 105.5, which ranked him third. He led the league in 2010 at 111. His best season was the undefeated year in 2007, when he had a 117.2 rating. His lowest full season number ever was 85.7, in 2002.

After five weeks of this season, Brady is at 80.5.

Brady has completed just 56.6 percent of his passes this season, which would be a career-low. He is also on pace for a career low in yards per attempt (6.2). Sunday’s game at Cincinnati was statistically his worst of the year, as he went 18 of 38 for 197 yards, no touchdowns and an interception as the Patriots lost to the Bengals, 13-6.

“It was pretty poor all the way around,” Brady said Monday on WEEI radio. “There was not a lot of production. There was not a lot of production in the pass game, in the run game. We only had 250 yards offense, 1-of-12 on third down. If you can’t stay on the field because you’re not converting third downs, then you never really get a chance to balance the game out running the ball. We had some efficient runs, [but] because we sucked on third down we just really could never get them into a situation where they started playing defensively. They were able to really do whatever they wanted to.”

The Bengals felt that their pass rush was able to rattle Brady.

“Once we hit him early, he was kind of shaky in the pocket. For the majority of the game, he was on his back,” said defensive tackle Domata Peko. “People had to help him up after every other play. When you do that to any quarterback — it doesn’t matter if you’re a Hall of Famer, and he’s been one of the best, him and Peyton Manning, of the past decade — when you get at a quarterback’s feet, push the pocket, don’t let him step into his throws, you can cause some havoc.”

“We just wanted to hit him, and hit him constantly, and that’s just what we did,” offered defensive end Wallace Gilberry. “Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap, myself, Domata Peko and Margus Hunt, we just got pressure consistently up front and kept him rattled all game.”

Brady looked old several times when he appeared to have time to get away from pressure, but simply could not move quickly enough. He admitted his reads were off.

“I missed some reads, missed some guys that were open,” he said. No one is accustomed to seeing Tom Brady play like that.

“It surprises everybody. He’s one of the greatest players of all time,” running back LeGarrette Blount said after the game. “He’s going to continue to come out here and work, just like all of us are. Even the best have bad games.”

“We’re not executing at the level we need to,” Brady said. “We scored six points. We really haven’t played well, up to our capabilities, all season long. At some point we’re going to have to start doing that on a more consistent basis. We’re working hard at it in practice and we’re going to try to correct it. It’s not like it gets any easier for us. We’ve played some pretty good defenses, and this week we play the Saints. They’ve got a pretty good defense too — they’re undefeated.”

Brady pointed out that he has yet to have the chance to be on the field with everyone on his “real” offense.

“We have to do that first and see what we can do,” he said.

Stevan Ridley, Rob Gronkowski and Shane Vereen all were unable to play against the Bengals, and Danny Amendola was making his return after three missing games. Vereen will be out for a few more weeks, but it is very likely that Gronkowski and Ridley will be back on when the Pats host Drew Brees and the Saints. Brady hopes matters will begin changing on Sunday.

“We’ve got to start making the plays that NFL players make,” he said. “If we don’t, we’re going to continue to struggle and not score points and put too much pressure on our defense.”

“The positive is that we're still 4-1 after all the crap we've been thru this year.”